Chương 25: Chapter 24

Skysandra peered down through the clouds from atop the tallest mountain, watching the burning forest and the humans responsible for it. They were a strange pair. In her hundreds of years of life, she had met countless humans and humanoid creatures, yet never two quite like them. There was something special about them. An inexplicable sense of importance clung to both of them, a feeling of wonder that even she struggled to fully understand. At least she knew where part of that feeling originated.

Mei was a girl born with the fate of her world resting in her hands without ever realizing it. The Company called people like her Main Characters. Across the infinite universes, however, they were known by another name. Fate Holders. They were beings born from their worlds themselves, created to guide, protect, and alter destiny when the need arose. Yet what puzzled Skysandra was Adam. The feeling surrounding him ran even deeper. He certainly hadn't been born special the way Mei had. She could tell that much.

At most, he possessed an extraordinary talent for magic, one that had been wasted on a world where magic simply didn't exist. Perhaps it was because he had managed to attract the love of a Fate Holder. As far as Skysandra knew, such a thing had never happened before. The records showed, Fate Holders were unable to fall in love. Their existence stood too high above ordinary lives, their responsibilities too great. Their worlds relied on them. Their destinies were intertwined with countless others.

And yet these two had somehow managed it. It was strange. Still, Skysandra decided not to dwell on the mystery. Some things simply could not be explained. The universe contained infinite possibilities and even more outcomes. Fate and the future were never truly set in stone. Turning her attention back to the present, she watched Mei and Adam face the worm. The sneaky creature had hidden itself among the goblins, where it knew she could not interfere due to the limitations set by the Company's contract.

But now it had been exposed. Thanks to her little ploy involving the two humans, all that remained was to wait until they stumbled into a danger they could not hope to survive. Then the final act of her plan could begin. She was bound by the laws of the Game's System, unable to act outside the role assigned to her. Unless she was given a new role through certain actions. Such as being summoned to aid a player. She waited patiently. Finally, a small feather drifted from Adam's inventory.

A sharp gleam entered her eyes. Peering across space itself, she activated the feather's function with her boundless magic. A sneer spread across her beak. Her thousand-foot wings unfurled, blotting out the sky as she launched herself from the mountaintop. The mountain beneath her shattered from the force, and she shot forward at speeds beyond human comprehension. In the blink of an eye, she crossed the distance and emerged above the desert skies. Far below, the worm writhed across the sands.

Skysandra looked down upon it with open contempt. It would make perfect nourishment for her unborn child. The thought filled her with excitement. For so long, her hatchling had lacked the nutrients necessary to emerge from its shell. Now, at last, she had found something worthy. Even so, she did not allow her anticipation to distract her. The three tiny mortals below had fulfilled their roles perfectly. Before anything else, she swept them away from the battlefield and delivered them to safety.

After all, they had earned their reward. And Skysandra intended to reward them handsomely once this was over. First, however, she would kill the worm. Then she would feed her child. — — — Far off, atop a mountain of sand crowned by a beautiful oasis, three people stood watching a clash worthy of legend. A bird whose wingspan stretched so far it seemed to eclipse the sun faced off against a worm large enough to swallow dragons whole. Their battle shook the desert.

Thunderous impacts rolled across the horizon while flashes of gold and black lit the distant sky. Even from this far away, the scale of it was difficult to comprehend.

"Is that really Skysandra?" Mei asked, squinting into the distance.

"When did she get so... big?" The last time they had seen her, she had been in her human form. Much like the tiny black chicken they had originally met, her human body had been petite in every respect. The creature currently dominating the sky was something else entirely. This was likely her true form. And it was almost beyond imagination.

"That is the legendary Roc said to dwell among the clouds atop the tallest mountain in the world," Granessa said, reverence clear in her voice.

"You two know her? How?"

"I'm the mother of her child," Mei answered. Granessa stared at her.

"I thought you two..." She gestured vaguely between Mei and Adam.

"But with a bird? You have quite the extreme taste, knife-ear."

"We babysit her unhatched child," Adam clarified.

"Mei only briefly adopted the egg."

"You keep calling me knife-ear, but I'm not an elf." Mei pulled back her long two-toned hair, revealing ears decorated with several golden earrings.

"Yeah, I figured that out shortly after we met," Granessa said with a nod.

"I just like calling you knife-ear. You really do look like the ones called dark elves among the knife-ears."

"Really? Is it because I'm beautiful?" Granessa nodded again without hesitation.

"I normally don't like smooth-skinned knife-ears, but you two? You've got the aesthetics orcs appreciate." She flexed both arms, causing her muscles to bulge dramatically.

"Strong physiques." The chat abruptly popped into Mei and Adam's vision. Enough time had passed without direct combat for the system to re-enable it. SeeCuteGirl-iClick: I have a new love. I'm changing my name. SeeMuscularGirl-iClick: Muscles 4 life! SeeCuteGirl-iClick: Dude! You stole my new name @SeeMuscularGirl-iClick SeeMuscularGirl-iClick: I've had this name for twelve years. Respect for yours btw.: THUMB: The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

SeeCuteGirl-iClick: Whatever... guess I'll keep this username then.: PepeHands:"Hey chat!" Mei chirped immediately.

"What's up? Someone stole your username twelve years ago? Damn. I hate time travelers. They're always taking the coolest things from other people." She slipped back into her streamer persona so naturally it was almost frightening. Looking at her now, nobody would guess she had been depressed and convinced she was about to die only minutes earlier.

"The big bird? That's Skysandra. You all missed her last time. We've basically been living with her ever since we entered the tutorial. We have a child together, so she's basically half my wife." She paused.

"No! Adam is not the father! Threeso... mods, string that guy up by his shoelaces and subject him to banning by a thousand blades!" Adam shook his head and ignored her rambling. Instead, he focused on the battle raging in the distance. The combatants were too far away to make out clearly. All he could see was a blur of black and gold colliding with a writhing pink mass. Every few seconds, a burst of magic illuminated the desert, followed by explosions powerful enough to send sand billowing into the sky.

Watching the two creatures unleash one mysterious ability after another brought back a thought he had lost earlier. Adam glanced at his Magic stat. C. How exactly was it calculated? A warm sensation lingered in the pit of his stomach, where instinctively he knew his magic was stored. When he had first awakened magic at the beginning of the tutorial, that sensation had been almost nonexistent. A tiny spark.

When his Magic stat reached D-rank, the spark had grown into something more tangible, like a small seed planted within him. Now, at C-rank, the seed had finally begun to sprout. A sapling. The image felt strangely appropriate. Maybe B-rank would turn it into a full-grown tree. As for A-rank or S-rank? He couldn't even begin to imagine what that might feel like. Yet from that tiny sapling of power inside him, Adam could sense something important. Magic had no true shape.

It existed as a foreign state of matter, neither solid nor liquid nor gas. It simply was. It existed. Skills and spells were what gave magic shape and purpose. They were manifestations of imagination, influenced by a person's class, weapon, and understanding. When Adam cast a fireball, his support-oriented class subtly resisted the spell, reducing its effectiveness. But when he cast a shield? His class embraced it. Strengthened it. Encouraged it.

"If magic is formless..." Adam muttered.

"Can't I shape it however I want?" His gaze drifted down to the bone staff resting in his hands.

"This isn't the weapon for me." The realization felt oddly liberating. The two-handed staff didn't suit him. More importantly, it didn't suit his class. He was a Shield-Healer. His role was to protect his allies, absorb danger, and repair whatever slipped through his defenses. He was meant to be the ultimate tank. Yet somehow he had been shoved into the category of mage. Adam tightened his grip on the staff before slowly relaxing it again.

"I need freedom," he murmured. His eyes remained fixed on the distant battle as the idea continued to take shape.

"But how?" — — —"Adam looks best without a shirt? While I agree with that, don't go thirsting over my man!" While Mei argued back and forth with her invisible friends, Adam sat silently, lost in thought. Granessa glanced between the two humans and the titanic creatures battling on the horizon. The clash still sent tremors through the desert. Every so often, a distant explosion shook the air, followed by flashes of gold and black that illuminated the dunes.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, Granessa silently thanked her ancestors for their protection. Despite being an orc, a people who sought glorious deaths in battle, she was glad to have survived. Death at the hands of such a creature would not have been honorable. And she wasn't only saying that because of her deep-seated fear of small creatures. Lord of Flesh had felt wrong. Foreign. Like something that should never have existed within their world. It was different from the feeling Adam and Mei gave her.

Granessa knew neither of them belonged here. Their strange knowledge, unusual powers, and bizarre mannerisms made that obvious. Yet they didn't inspire the same revulsion. If anything, they felt surprisingly natural. Lord of Flesh was the opposite. It didn't merely come from another world. It felt as though it didn't belong anywhere at all. With a small shake of her head, Granessa forced the unpleasant thoughts aside and turned her attention back to her new companions.

The more time she spent with them, the more curious she became. Rather than being disturbed by their differences, she found herself wanting to know them better. They were an interesting pair. Her gaze drifted toward Adam. Specifically, toward Adam's shirtless chest. His physique was one of the best she had ever seen among humans. Not at the level of an orc, of course, but close to what she imagined human perfection looked like. He was slightly short compared to most orcs and even some exceptionally tall humans.

Fully clothed, he appeared fairly ordinary and somewhat unassuming. That illusion disappeared the moment his shirt came off. Beneath his clothing was a physique that had clearly been forged through years of hard work and discipline. Orcs actually had a term for builds like his. A sleeper build. The kind of body that looked average right up until the moment clothed started to be removed. Though, despite having the term, no orc had ever achieved such a build. Their bodies were simply too large.

Granessa nodded to herself in approval before turning her attention toward Mei. The woman was currently bouncing around with seemingly limitless energy while commentating on the distant battle for her invisible friends. It was hard to believe that only a short time ago she had been convinced she was about to die. Mei was taller than most human women Granessa had met, and physically stronger than any of them. In fact, she even surpassed Adam's physique by a small margin.

Her muscles weren't nearly as visible as Granessa's, but strength wasn't always measured by size. Granessa could feel it in the way Mei moved. Every step carried an effortless confidence. Every motion seemed light, controlled, and powerful. It was like watching a wild beast disguised as a cheerful young woman. If they sparred, Granessa wasn't entirely certain she would win. That realization was both humbling and exciting. Mei possessed an overwhelming amount of power hidden within her relatively small frame.

Granessa watched the pair for another moment. Adam, quietly contemplating something important. Mei, energetically arguing with people only she could see. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"If it's these two..." she murmured to herself. For the first time in a long while, she felt a flicker of hope for the future.